Tassin was eighteen years old when she found out she was pregnant. An ultrasound revealed that the baby had hydrocephalus, a condition characterized by fluid build-up inside the skull.

“[The doctors] told me that I shouldn’t have her, and it wasn’t going to be good if I did,” Tassin said in her audition tape. She refused an abortion, however, and says that her daughter Keira is now a very healthy four-year-old. The only medical complication that resulted from Keira’s condition is hearing loss, for which she needs to wear hearing aids.

“She’s the best thing that ever happened to me in my life,” said Tassin, “I’m singing for her.”

Tassin impressed judges with an emotional rendition of Carrie Underwood’s “Temporary Home,” a song that talks about the challenges of single motherhood. She was selected to move on to the next level of the competition, which will take place in Hollywood.

Tassin’s audition is not the first time that a pro-life story was featured on American Idol. Last year, Maddy Curtis, daughter of award winning pro-life blogger Tripp Curtis, told the audience in her opening segment about her eleven siblings, including one biological and three adopted brothers with down syndrome.

2007 winner Jordin Sparks also gained attention for her pro-chastity beliefs when she spoke out in defense of pre-marital abstinence at the MTV music video awards in 2008